which social media do you use?
Issue #120 (30 Sep) – jobs in HR; great events; how to find a good company; private insurance premia; Top Voice is no more; salary negotiation; 13 funding rounds.
Programming note: I stood next to the 20km mark on the Marathon yesterday and could not stop thinking about how impressive the effort of completing a marathon really is. Have a great 3rd!
Did you know that the shortest street in Berlin, Eiergasse, measures only 16 metres and that I also run an Instagram account?
🌟 Handpicked community
is a place where we meet, share projects and ideas and look for help.
📨 Submit your input here.
🎪 Meet — tech & other events:
⭐️ KAOSPILOT, the renowned Danish school for leaders and entrepreneurs, is hosting an immersive 3-day Experience Design program near Berlin. Learn to create meaningful experiences for customers, employees, & society. Click here to see the program details. | Wed, 30/10 at 09:00 | Drahnsdorf Berlin*
Unicorns in Tech Summit 2024: ‘dear___future’, the LGBTIQ+ Tech Conference & Career Fair | Sat, 12/10 at 11.00 | SchwuZ
AI Breakfast: Navigating Industrial AI | Tue, 8/10 at 9.00 | Merantix AI Campus
TEDxMitte is inviting you to Move Closer! Join us and engage with ideas that spark curiosity, experience performances that make your heart sing, and meet people who will remind you that you're not alone in this journey… (handpickedberlin-20 for 20% discount) | Sat, 19/10 at 11:00 | BeachMitte*
this could be your event - advertise it
😎 Show — Cool stuff / Shoutouts / Projects & similar:
You can “Explore Business Opportunities in Berlin, Albania, Bosnia&Herzegovina” in betahaus on the 6th of October at 18.00. The event marks the launch of the project and is open to entrepreneurs, investors and startup ecosystem enablers who are interested in getting to know new markets, especially the Western Balkans.
Join START Berlin Batch #7! 🚀 Get insights into top startups, connect with founders & VCs, attend expert workshops & access our global network. For Berlin students passionate about startups. Apply now until Oct 6.
🔍 Ask — for a Service / Co-founder / Project help & similar:
A friend is looking for an SEO consultant for a 2-5h gig with WP experience. Please drop me an e-mail if you are interested or know someone.
Looking for the submission link? It’s below the title ⤴️
*Sponsored
👀 Handpicked jobs
is a rotating selection of around 20 jobs from companies I’d check out.
4 from the rotation this week: HR & Recruitment
The remaining jobs (also outside rotation) are in the Handpicked online database.
You can also submit a job.
📢 Looking for some creative exposure?
You can access a fast-growing and affluent audience with fantastic metrics. Join AWS, Medianet Berlin Brandenburg, Grammarly, Ostrom and others. Details here.
🗞 Top inspiration snippets
🇩🇪 Berlin & other good stuff
is a selection of links focused on Berlin/Germany, career, timeless content and business.
I wrote this article in January but only moved it to the website this week: How to find a great company to work for? A good inspiration.
October is here. Selection of food events from Mit Vergnügen and events by Tip Berlin. Both in German.
After the historic Nord-Express, which linked Paris to St. Petersburg via Berlin in 1896, direct train service between Berlin and Paris will resume mid-December (from €60 onwards, 8h ride). DB also plans to include Munich-Milan and Munich-Rome routes by late 2026 in partnership with Trenitalia. (RBB, 🇩🇪) Related, the Deutschlandticket will cost €58 from January 2025.
If you are privately insured, brace for big premium increases. Private health insurers in Germany plan increases from January 1 (or April 1), 2025. About two-thirds of 8.7 million fully insured customers will be affected, with average increases of 18%, some even more than 30%. (MM, 🇩🇪)
Tagesspiegel published a study by SWI on Berlin’s top employers and training companies in 2024. (🇩🇪) The list of best employers has 137 names, and I found a few familiar ones: 50Hertz, Axel Springer, BVG, Coca-Cola, Doctolib, Laika Communications, Ostrom, Merdeces-Benz, Octopus Energy, Sanofi-Aventis, Stromnetz Berlin, SumUp, Tesla, Workist plus dozens of others I never heard of. 700 companies self-audited on work-time models, health protection, benefits, new work concepts, equal opportunities, and development possibilities, and those with 70%+ made it to the list.
As always, a good commentary from Adam Tooze on the German state of politics after the Brandenburg election, which had the highest participation since reunification (72.9%) and where SPD somehow still managed to win. “But one striking result is that whereas left-of-center political forces effectively rallied around the SPD , in Brandenburg, the CDU on the center-right offered no effective resistance to the AfD surge. This is a significant setback for the CDU and their national leadership under Friedrich Merz.”
Career: LinkedIn, which is getting increasingly infested by the AI slop, decided to remove one of the two Top Voice badges (the one you could get
by using ChatGPT to commentcommenting on collaborative articles). Good riddance. Also, notice how AI always adds “vibrant” to paragraphs related to Berlin. Vibrant is Berlin’s thrilled to announce and delve. Related,Sadly, I only had five options, so I could not add MySpace.
Career: This is a classic from 2012 on salary negotiation by Patrick McKenzie. It’s a long article written when it was easy to land a job, especially for engineers, but it’s also extremely valuable in today’s environment. Bookmark it, and never say the number first.
Timeless: Go for a walk, Solvitur ambulando, and:
Timeless: One for everyone building, writing, thinking: How to Build Anything Extremely Quickly.
📱 Weekly Social.
Reddit: State of the Berlin rental market. A wholesome way of living for €500 per month.
Twitter: If people had cars when Bethoveen dropped. “He no miss, he no miss!”
Instagram: Dating methods in Spain. What would be Berlin equivalent? A Club Mate in your right hand at Admiralbrücke? (h/t Mihaela)
💬 Briefly.
😔 Bad news: Northvolt -1600 (20%) in Sweden.
Stats: September unemployment was down 66k to 2.806M, but still 179k higher than last year. The unemployment rate dropped slightly to 6%. (Federal Employment Agency)
What we learned last week is that your employer can visit you at your door if you are on sick leave. According to Tesla, over 200/12,000 employees have not yet appeared at work in 2024. (all German media)
Zuckerberg, looking all cool in an oversized T-shirt, unveiled AR glasses Orion, while OpenAI “lost” another C-level, Mira Murati. Altman, the CEO, claims he won’t get any equity and become a paper billionaire, but nobody believes what he says anymore. Related meme.
Berlin-based Tourlane (individual tour planner, 500 employees, revenue of €6.1M in ‘22) plans to be profitable in ‘26 (HB, 🇩🇪).
Italian Unicredit increased its stake in Commerzbank to 21%. The aggressive move sparked protests and political debate. Because of national interests?
A busy week in fintech:
Revolut launched a standalone app, Revolut Invest, in some markets. You might have a new neobroker to choose from already by the end of the year.
Their competitor, N26, was featured on r/finanzen because they couldn’t manage a legally mandated portfolio transfer.
Bunch (Berlin) will get a French competitor: Roundtable will expand to Germany, offering tools for structured investment management.
Lithuanian fintech kevin ceased operations. I sometimes published their jobs because they published salary ranges.
Scalable Capital appointed Christian W. Röhl,Bogleheada social media star, as chief economist starting October 1st. (FinanceFWD, 🇩🇪)CODE University of Applied Sciences opened a campus in Berlin-Neukölln (Kalle). Backed by 50+ startups, it focuses on… guess what?
Digital product development education.Axel Springer will split into media (Döpfner & Friede Springer) and classified ad businesses (PE funds). Changes are pending approval and expected by Q2 2025. (OMR)
Berlin-based cancellation service Volders (also owner of Aboalarm) acquired legaltech Fine, which advises on legal claims for gambling losses. (Finance Forward, 🇩🇪)
ByteDance decided to pull the plug on TikTok Music.
💸 Recently funded in Berlin & Germany
is a list of companies that received funding over €1M.
Distribusion | Berlin | Global ground transportation platform | €75M Series C | Careers.
Senvo | Berlin | Last-mile logistics optimization platform | €2.5M | Careers.
Exakt Health | Berlin | Digital sports physiotherapy | €2.2M Seed | Careers.
Cariqa | Berlin | EV charging marketplace | €1M Pre-Seed | Careers.
Family.cards | Berlin | Digital solutions for seniors | €1.2M Seed | Careers.
Biovox | Darmstadt | Sustainable bioplastics for medical applications | €2.2M Seed | Careers.
Repath | Hamburg | Climate risk and adaptation platform | €3.6M Seed | Careers.
Enginsight | Jena | Cybersecurity platform | €6M | Careers.
*Egym | Munich | Programmable fitness equipment | €180M Series G | Careers.
Quantum Systems | Munich | Electric drone manufacturer | €100M+ Series B | Careers.
Marvel Fusion | Munich | Fusion energy technology | €62.8M | Careers.
Syte | Münster | PropTech for real estate digitalization | €5M Seed | Careers.
Treeo | Stuttgart | CO2 removal certificates | €1.72M | Careers.
*new German unicorn with a wild Series letter!
😅 Meanwhile
I chuckled at MVP
✌️ Handpicked essentials and a treat:
- How to learn German and get over “Genau” and “mit Karte, bitte”?
- Don’t make these mistakes with your side hustle!
- Berlin Salary Trends Reports: How do you compare?
- ❓Surprise treat for the curious
- The best questions to ask at a job interview
✨ Berlin Events Weekly: the best resource for events in Berlin ✨
♡ 20% Berlin: all the Berlin news twice a week, in English! ♡
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You forgot Bluesky as a social media option